Harry sat uncomfortably in-between Hermione and Ron at breakfast. Not only was Hermione still not talking to Ron over reading the letter Draco had left for her, but he was not speaking to her either after she joined Harry and Draco the previous week. Ginny playfully rubbed Harry’s leg with her foot from the other side of the table. It was her indirect way of saying I feel the tension too.

Hermione glanced towards the Slytherin table every so often at Draco. He had made some peace with Daphne and Blaise and was back on good terms with them. Although he hadn't explained his new-found friendship yet, nor had he any intentions to! Life was good at the moment for him. Hermione was also somewhat glad he had his friends back. She just wished it wasn’t them. Every time they laughed she just felt like they were talking about her. She knew Draco was different with her and she wasn’t sure if that was a good or bad thing yet.

Draco looked over in Hermione’s direction. She looked miserable! None of them were speaking to each other in her group and he felt like it was because of him! This was another reason for him to dislike Ron. Draco waited till she looked up from her toast and over at him. He smirked and winked at her. She gave him a smug smile back and made a silly kissy face.

It had been a week since they had gone to Gringotts and Hermione keep teasing about the kiss. They hadn’t really changed how much time they spent together, their study session were now filled with work and chatting and Draco even helped her with some of her head girl duties. It had been a good first week as friends. It felt as if they had known each other for years, unless, he was with Blaise and Daphne. Then they went back to being two people being made spend time with each other.

“Bloody hell” Ron huffed and got up from his seat. He had seen Draco’s little gestures Hermione.

“What’s wrong now Ron?” Ginny asked in an unconcerned voice, his dramatic outbursts were always a pain in her side

Ron just shook his head and looked at Hermione. She scorned back at him

“Forget it” he grabbed his books and left his friends behind

“You’s two have to sort this out!”

“I know Gin!” Hermione sighed, she blushed at the thoughts of Ron seeing her making kissing faces at Draco

“For the sake of everyone, do it soon” Harry draped his arm over Hermione’s shoulder

“Hermione” Neville called from a little further down the table

“Professor Mc Gonagall wants to see us in her office”

“I better go, I promise I’ll fix this soon” she quickly got up, secretly thanks Neville in her head for being an escape card out of that conversation.

0o0o0

“You’re quiet tonight” Draco finally said after twenty minutes of silence while they were studying

“Just tired, got a lot to do too”

“Don’t make me ask Granger!”

“Ask what?”

“What’s wrong? There I said it” he jeered trying to make out he wasn’t all that concerned at her foul mood

“Well I figure we may as well just get used to how it was before, you know because us being friends is all a big secret and she’s coming back”

“Wait hold on” he got up from his seat as Hermione began to walk away “Hermione!”

She stopped in her tracks he had just called her Hermione?

“Granger listen, just because she’s coming back doesn’t mean anything and we both agreed that it’s probably for the best if other people don’t know we’re friends”

“She was your girlfriend and I know we decided that, as you said it’s no one else’s business but it all just feels so deceitful”

“No she” he paused for a moment “ok we had a thing, but that has nothing to do with us being friends, we’d both lose our friends if we told everyone”

“Ha, your naïve if you think she’s going to let any girl within five feet of you and I’m not sure people would be all that bothered about us being friends”

He began to smirk at her “Are you jealous Granger?” he raised his eyebrow

“Ha, you’re the one who kissed me Malfoy”

His cheeks flushed pink “Are you going to sit back down or what?”

“Fine!”

“I’ll be surprised if Pansy even speaks to me to be honest”

“She’ll be all over you like slime on a slug”

“I was never her boyfriend, in fact I’d never let her call me that, I was horrible to her actually, I probably hurt her as much as I did to you the only difference was she let me”

“She liked the popularity that came with you”

“She let me walk all over her for the sake of a title, plus I was getting what I wanted out of it”

“I dare not ask” Hermione rolled her eyes at the thoughts of him sleeping with Pansy

“Oh come on don’t tell me you never took advantage of having Weasley follow you like a lost puppy, why else would he be so defensive and protective over you”

“No! And hardly sure he’s not even talking to me”

“I know but that’s because he cares, I never cared enough about Pansy enough to fight with her”

“Hmmm” Hermione knew he was right and pangs of guilt hit her

“Wait so if you were never with Weasley”

“Oh Merlin” she breathed to herself, the last thing she wanted

“Does that mean you’re a virgin?” he asked under his breath, he then smirked to himself

“What? I didn’t hear you”

“I wasn’t jeering” he quickly defended

“I’m lost!” she laughed, she wasn’t entirely sure what he had said but she has some idea

“Sorry! I was just thinking to myself” he raised his eyebrow at her

Hermione fidgeted at her hair and began to squirm in her seat a little. She had kind of heard his question to himself and hoped he wasn’t going to ask out loud again.

“Sorry I shouldn’t be prying” Draco could feel the tension oozing from across the table

“So you must have done something really bad if Pansy won’t talk to you”

“Well aside from her parents finding out their daughter was dating a death eater and making her move schools, I may have slept with Daphne and I don’t even know if she knows that but I’m pretty sure she does”

“Daphne?” Hermione asked in disbelief

“Yes Daphne, it was a once off the girl threw herself at me”

“So it’s all about looks then” Hermione mumbled to herself

“That’s not something I expected to hear from you” Draco scorned

“Sorry what? The girl is a walking airhead”

“A little shallow don’t you think! You don’t even know Daphne or Pansy for that matter”

“I know enough to know they belittle people based on appearance and whether they think you’re cool and rich enough to roll with them”

“A little rich coming from you, considering you belittle people based on how intelligent they are”

“I do not”

“You just did right there, and I may have been like that before but here I am now sitting with you and you’re neither of those things! You wouldn’t even be speaking to me now if I didn’t have some level of intelligence another reason why you and Weaselbee would never work out”

“You’re an arrogant son of a bitch you know that” she grabbed her things and stormed out of the library

“There’s a slap back to reality” Draco sighed as he shoved his books away from him.

0o0o0

A dead silence fell over the Great Hall as Pansy Parkinson strutted through the double doors. You could almost hear the hearts of the majority of Hogwarts female students sinking. It was official she was back to wreak havoc.

“Let the games and insecurities commence” Hermione groaned

“Don’t let her get to you now Mione, you’ve survived much worse than the poisonous words of Pansy Parkinson” Harry sympathised

“I know, I don’t know why she gets to me so much” she looked over at Draco who was flicking through what looked like cue cards over his breakfast.

Hermione was feeling a little guilty over the fight she had with Draco the day before last especially because he didn’t show up for their study sessions the whole next day. Even when they hated each other at the beginning of the year, he still showed up! She wasn’t even all that bothered about Pansy anymore she was more annoyed she was letting herself get upset over him.

She then looked over at Pansy who was talking to Theodore Nott while giving Daphne, Blaise and Draco sinister looks, she obviously knew about Draco and Daphne’s little fling.

“Maybe she won’t have as much power if she doesn’t have Draco on her arm” Ginny whispered to Hermione

“You noticed the death stares too then” Hermione giggled

Pansy looked straight over at Hermione and rolled her eyes at her as if she had heard her laughing over the noisy breakfast hall, Hermione smiled sweetly and waved back at her. Ginny, Harry and even Ron laughed at her response.

“I’m not going to let her be a problem” she chirped

“That’s the attitude” Ginny nudged her and gave her a big grin making Hermione laugh.

Her laughter died out when she noticed Draco leaving the great hall a sudden urge to follow him and make amends came over her.

“I’ll see you’s in class, and see you at lunch Gin, I have to return something to the library I completely forgot about it” she quickly got up from her seat and walked hastily out of the hall so she could catch up to Draco

Harry looked at Ginny to see if he had missed something but she was looking just as confused as he was

“Think you’re on your own there Ron”

“Something’s going on with her” He sulked, upset no one agreed with him.

0o0o0

“Draco wait!” Hermione called down the corridor just as he went to turn the corner

He turned back and smiled sheepishly when he seen her and began to make his way towards her.

“Draco, about the other night I”

“No wait! I’m sorry what I said came out wrong”

Hermione smiled at the floor “Same here, you’re right I don’t know your friends I just, well I just never like girls like them they always made me feel insecure”

“Well they shouldn’t, we good?”

“Yes!” she scrunched up her face and smiled “That was easy”

“Here” Draco handed her the pile of cue cards he had been looking at over his breakfast

“Oh Draco these are amazing!”

He had handed her invitations for the party she wanted to have at Malfoy manor. They faded in and out from purple and orange and had they outline of Malfoy manor done in black and all the details for they party.

“I was going to put fancy dress but I thought it might be a bit cliché”

“No these are perfect, this is perfect. How are we going to give them out without any of the professors seeing?”

“How do you feel about missing charms this morning?” he smirked

“What?”

“Yes or no?” he took her hand in the palm of his own “Come on decided quick the clocks ticking”

“Oh fine then”

“Knew it!” he gripped he hand tightly and she jolted forward and he began to run dragging her with his to keep up

“Why are we running” she gasped from behind him

Just as he went to answer the bell rang for their first class to begin “That’s why”

They finally reached the astronomy tower. Draco pulled her right over to the railings. Hermione inhaled deeply to catch her breath from running the whole way. She took in the magnificent view of the forbidden forest. She’d hadn’t been in the astronomy tower since the day she told Harry there was no way he was going alone to find the horcruxes.

“You ready?” Draco smirked as he took the elastic from the pile of invitations and split the pile in half and handed it to Hermione

“On three we throw them off the side ok?”

“What really?” she asked in disbelief

“Trust me”

“Poor choice of words” Hermione grinned

“Funny! Ok, one, two, THREE”

They both flung the pile of invitations into the air. Hermione giggled as both piles dispersed and filled the sky in front of their eyes. As they began to fall they began to transform into what looked like little black bats, almost like a black potronus of a bat.

“Draco that’s amazing! What a clever charm” she watched as they began to flutter to different parts of the school depending on who they were delivered to

“Something professor Flitwick showed me in third year”

“Is that your potronus?” she asked stupidly, then realised what she had done “Sorry I forgot”

“No it’s ok, I hope someday I’ll be able to do it. It was pretty impressive that Snape could”

“Yours would most certainly be a snake” she said light-heartedly

“I was thinking something more like a dragon”

“Mines an otter”

“Really? I would have said a bird of some sort, you know small and cunning or a cat”

Hermione liked that idea but a sudden burst of nerves washed over her, small and cunning? Was Draco flirting with her? Hardly!

“I couldn’t do it for ages after the war and then Crookshanks died, I heard somewhere that sometimes they change of you lose your most loved pet to whatever it was but mine is still an otter I would have liked a cat just for her”

“Someday I’ll get it” Draco sighed morbidly sounding unhopeful

“Thanks for the invitations Draco”

Hermione, to her own surprise hugged him and kissed him on his left cheek, then left the astronomy tower, leaving Draco to watch her leave feeling a little shock as he ran the tips of his fingers over where she had placed her soft warm lips to his skin.

He hurried towards the door to call her back, they still had basically a whole class to kill until ancient runes, he was going to suggest they hit the library together but instead he watched as she walked away from him with a bounce in her step, she then reached into her robes and pulled out her wand, gave it a twirl and casted out a little otter that swirled and danced around her head. Hermione laughed to herself as she turned to walk round the corner.

Draco lifted his own wand out of his pocket, smiling, he thought maybe he could try it. Weren’t you supposed to think happy thoughts? But then his mood quickly turned sour when all the reasons that would stop him came to mind. He bitterly shoved his wand back and made his way back to the balcony in the astronomy tower.

0o0o0

The great hall buzzed at lunch time over Hermione’s great party at Malfoy Manor. She had decided to eat lunch in the court yard as she had spent the last two classes answering questions about the party, the main one being why it was at Malfoy Manor. She had decided she was going to ask Ron to go with her to recover their friendship, a sort of peace offering.

As she bit into her apple she decided to look through her journal to see what she had to prepare for the next day when she noticed one of the invitations was stuck in the elastic band across the front. She pulled it out and noticed it had her name across the top, all the other invites were nameless

Hermione,

Go with me to the party tomorrow? I can’t imagine spending the night with anyone else!

DM

Hermione bit her lip nervously, she hadn’t even thought of going with Draco and she had planned on asking Ron but something deep down inside of her really wanted to go with Draco.

“Well, well if it isn’t little miss party planner herself!”

Wafts of strong flowery perfume filled Hermione’s head. It could only be one person

“What do you want Pansy?” Hermione quickly folded her invite and put it back in her journal.

“I’m only gone two minutes and already you’re trying to take my place here, head girl and party planning? What kind of party is it? I suppose you invited the Professors and all?”

“I think you’ll find you sabotaged your own reputation here when you sold Harry out that night, I’m surprised you had the guts to come back!”

Pansy took a deep breath. Hermione was the first one to mention that to her, everyone else was too afraid to bring it up.

“I see you’ve been sniffing round Draco also!” it was the only comeback she had

“Draco’s not who he used to be anymore, and unlike you he’s actually trying to change” Hermione packed up her thing and began to walk away from Pansy

“You’re still a loser Granger!” Pansy called after her

Hermione just let it roll off her back she didn’t really care what she thought. She actually began to smile when she realised she didn’t care anymore. Just as she was walking through the courtyard doors she caught a sight of Ron.

“RON!” she called out for him, this was her chance as much as she would have like to go with Draco she knew this was the right thing to do

Ron stopped and waited for her to catch up to him but he remain silent

“Did you get the party invite?” she asked cheerily, hoping he was in a good mood

“Yep” he stared at the floor

“Well, I know things have been kind of rough between us lately but I was wondering if maybe, you’d like to go with me?”

“What?” he looked up at her in disbelief

“You know we’d have a good night together”

Ron could see she was trying but all he could think of in his head was Draco

“I thought you would have asked Malfoy” she sneered

“Why would I ask him we’re just study partners?”

“Don’t give me that I see the way you two are together, I’m not stupid I know when you like someone”

“Well then I won’t lie to you, he did ask me but I’d rather go with you, my friend and have a good night”

“Please Ron, I’m trying” she took his hand

“I know” he smiled “Ok, how about you get ready in mine and I’ll get mum to make your favourite”

“Pumpkin pie soup and grilled cheese toasties” she laughed

“That’s the one” he chuckled back

0o0o0

Draco sat at the head of the classroom as everyone piled as quickly as they could. Hermione was on her way out when she noticed he was still sitting there, even Professor Flitwick had gone.

“Draco aren’t you coming?”

“You didn’t reply to my invite”

“I know I was going to talk to you about that on the way to the Library”

“You asked Weasley”

“Oh you heard”

“He’s been telling everyone, like it’s some sort of date” he rolled his eyes

“Are you, are you jealous?” she grinned

“No” he snapped “A little courtesy would have been nice though you could have replied to my invite first” Draco packed his things into his bed and joined Hermione on her way out of the class room

“For what its worth I would have preferred to go with you, it’s just I have to fix things between Ron and I”

“You wouldn’t have been brave enough to go with me. You know caring what other people think and all”

“I would so! Like I said it’s important I fix things with Ron in fact I even told him that I was going to turn down your offer, and that well we were more than just study partners”

“You actually said that?” he stopped in the doorway of the classroom

“Well not in so many words but I didn’t deny it”

"Don't play games with me, it'll be dangerous" he circled closely around her

"You're the one who said Danger Granger Malfoy" she smirked

“Close the door then”

Hermione pushed the door closed and turned back to face him

“If we’re not just study partners then what are we?” he managed to ask his heart beating fast and hard

“I don’t want to say friends, it feels different to friends”

Hermione bit her lip as Draco walked towards her. He smirked at her, his eyes locked to hers.

God I love that smile she thought. She was nervous but a good kind of nervous, the excited kind.

He placed his hand on her collar bones and gently massaged just below her neck. Then playfully pushed his hand passed the collar of her shirt and onto her shoulders. His face now millimeters from hers, he breathed her in before pressing his lips to hers kissing her tentatively, waiting for her to respond.

Hermione grabbed his tie and pulled him into her and kissed him back fervently caressing her tongue against his. Electricity ran through her veins as he pushed her against the door and ran his hand from her shoulder round the back of her neck into her hair, teasingly pulling it as they continued to kiss. That sweet smell of exotic fruits he knew was hers alone filled his head and he breathed in. She impishly bit his lip as they kissed, exhilarating Draco. It was funny how a little gesture could be so sexy.

He knew this was going in one of two directions, and he knew one of these directions would be too much for her so he slowed the pace down, kissing her more gently till eventually kissing her lips sweetly then stopping. He took her by both hands and led her away from the door. Without saying anything he smirked at her, raising his eyebrow and then left the room leaving her there to catch her breath.

0o0o0

So sorry it’s been so long since my last update. I’m getting the feeling no one is all that interested in my story and I got a bit lost in finishing this chapter, but I shall finish what I started for everyone who was kind enough to read and review!

So thanks to anyone who has taken the time to read, I do appreciate it!